Mencyclopaedia: Levi Strauss

Worn in the USA - why America's trousers still have legs.

BY Luke Leitch |
02 November 2012

Mitt Romney on the campaign trail in his Levi's 501's Photo: AFP/Getty

When Mitt Romney hit the hustings in a pair of classic-fit Levi's 501s recently, the American press was impressed. Millionaire Mitt had slipped into the people's pants, and he wore them well. Even the Chicago Sun-Times - Obama's home paper - liked the cut of Romney's jib in his straight-cut, slim-fit (but not too slim), 34in-waist, 34in-leg Levi's. Mournfully, the Sun-Times recalled the incumbent's underwhelming appearance in a pair of shapeless, "mom"-cut Levi's at a baseball game in 2009, an appearance the President was forced - rather testily - to defend: "For those of you who want your president to look great in his tight jeans, I'm sorry, I'm not the guy."

President Barack Obama in his 'mom' jeans PHOTO: AFP/Getty

Jeans, and specifically Levi Strauss jeans, have been America's bellwether garment since the California Gold Rush. The patented Levi's riveting system that beefed up pockets and seams made them the sturdiest jeans available, fit for everything from ousting Native Americans from the prairies to fleeing the Dustbowl. And like the US itself, Levi's has a President: a man named James Curleigh. On a recent visit to London, Curleigh - it was his 100th day as Levi's commander-in-chief - engagingly riffed through the decades: from Levi's-wearing GIs in the Forties to Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, the Hollywood totems for the teenage Big Bang of the Fifties. "Then, in 1969, Woodstock: bam! A sea of denim! It was the uniform of progress: if you weren't naked, you were wearing Levi's."

The Eighties were the high-watermark decade for Levi's. Lee and Wrangler were still jostling for position, true, but Levi's remained dominant - and 501s became the global trouser; Bruce Springsteen put them on the cover of Born in the USA, Nick Kamen took them off in the launderette, and Chuck Norris wore them to high-kick commies. When the Berlin Wall came down, the first thing the newly democratised Reds queued for were pairs of red-tab jeans.

Ever since, Levi's - while still mighty - has had a tougher time of it. In the Nineties, the old certainties of denim frayed; European brands like Diesel and G-Star invented new cuts and washes that made the red tab look its age.

Designers like Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, along with "premium" labels like Evisu, muscled in at the top of the market, while fast-fashion giants and supermarkets took bites out of Levi's base. In the 2000s, Levi's stopped manufacturing in the US altogether. Curleigh concedes that trousers that won the West have lost a generation: "As as you came into this century, there was that 20-year-old who was, like, I have £100 to spend on a pair of jeans - and Levi's just wasn't part of his consideration. So we have a little bit of ground to make up."

As it strives to provide the strides of choice for teens and Twentysomethings in the 2010s - as well as for presidential candidates - Levi Strauss is casting its net widely. To reflect the rise of sportswear, it has an excellent new cycling range, Commuter (water-resistant jackets vented at the arms, trousers with D-lock straps on the waistband) and a convincing skateboarding collaboration with Nike.

To appeal to the new vogue for heritage wear, it has teamed up with Seattle's Filson to create some spiffing American-made kit for rugged hipsters. And Curleigh carries a test-tube of recycled plastic flakes in his courier bag, the better to demonstrate how 30 million pairs of Levi's so far have been made in a cotton blended with 20 per cent recycled food trays.

This company is surely too big to fail - Levi's jeans are sold at 55,000 stores in 110 countries, it employs 17,000 people and, in the three months to August of this year, sales totalled $1.1 billion - yet it will never again be the undisputed superpower it was back in the Eighties. Still, Levi Strauss is showing fresh signs of frontier spirit in an age where frontiers are hard to find.